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How to create Ruth’s heart-attack special0
neil posted in Uncategorized, Neil on September 30th, 2006

Cookery time!

Did’nt get round to posting this recipe over the summer. Now things have calmed down its time to pile on the pounds with this incredible recipe.

Ruth, a civil engineer, invented this for parties and general population control. It is simplicity itself, you merely combine the least healthy ingredients you can find in any corner-shop and melt them all down and place into a rice-krispie matrix.

Ingredients (Rice Krispies not pictured)

Step 1) Melt butter in large saucepan

Step 2) Melt toffee into same large saucepan

Step 3) Melt flumps/marshmallows into same large saucepan

Step 4) Introduce rice krispies

Step 5) Prepare tray with more butter and greaseproof paper

Step 6) Pour from saucepan onto tray

Step 7) Flatten and let sit until bored

This is’nt a healthy or nutritious foodstuff, it is bad for you and it is very very good at parties.

Palio part 2!!0
neil posted in Uncategorized on August 17th, 2006

Anticlimax this time, just a post to say a handful of pictures of the Palio day are here and that we survived. The “Selva” Contrade won in case you can’t tell. Will post more when I am not keeping Alicia waiting.

Off to Lucca.

Victoria1
Kate posted in Uncategorized, Travel, Kate & Dave on August 17th, 2006

Well, we still cant upload any pictures, so I am going to placate you all by writing another wee post. (Dont worry, all the missing pictures will follow soone enough). Well, we got to Victoria, BC on monday - it is so far (still) my favourite place in North America. The main thing I like about it is its size - ie not too big, so you can walk around lots of it, unlike Vancouver. We spent the whole of Tuesday just wandering around and looking at stuff (totem poles, specially for Anshu) and drinking in the hostel bar. Interestingly, we came across a couple of cops who had pulled large handfulls of marijuana plants out of a common flowerbed outside an apartment block and were heading back to their car with it.

This morning the bus picked up outside the hostel to take us to Tofino and Ucluelet, right out on the west coast of the island, beside Long Beach and the West Coast park and nature reserve. An interesting drive…narrow, winding roads. Kate had her eyes closed for large parts of it. And on Friday we are off on a 4 day sea kayaking trip through the Broken Islands, which is a groups of about 100 small islands just off to the south. Apparently there are quite a few groups of whales about, so with any luck we might see some of them.

So, thats the plan for the next few days.

Palio Di Siena1
neil posted in Uncategorized, Travel, Neil on August 16th, 2006

Its morning on Palio day!

The Palio Di Siena is where 11 of the 17 sections (contrade) of the city put a horse into a madcap race around the main square (il Campo). It is an allegory for life, according to Siena’s former Mayor. If so, life here is brutal and you can whip whomever you choose. Beware though! Enemies are out to ambush you and your horse!   

This morning’s practice was a bit different, it was an incredibly boring horse race. Each of the racers for this evening is required to perform a practice run this morning. Compared to last nights practice which was frantic, full and electric, this morning was a walking parade. The jockey’s main aim was not to get their horse hurt or sabotaged before the big one. We were right on the fence for both practices (courtesy of an unexpected bus) and are scheming this evenings shoot. Those of you lucky enough to recieve Italian TV should watch out for Alicia on a fencepost from this mornings practice (It should be shown about twenty times before the race this evening). 

The medieval streets are incredible here, it would be a beautiful, peaceful place if not for the Palio crowds. Lack of Italian is no big handicap for getting goods and services, but means striking up a conversation is nerve-wracking and difficult. Met a BBC stringer though, nice chap, even after I dumped wine into his bag.

The coffee here is excellent, although if you only ask for a “caffe” you recieve a shot of rocket propellant. Wunderbar!

Off to plan Lucca and maybe a trip to the Scots enclave of Braga!

9 inches of travel1
Kate posted in Uncategorized, Travel, Kate & Dave on August 14th, 2006

Full face helmet…check. Body armour…check. Stupidly heavy downhill machine…check. Whistler mountain bike park, here we come! And dont forget the all important lift pass. Theres no way you want to try and cycle one of those bikes uphill!

We got to Whistler village on friday afternoon - its only a 2 hour drive from Vancouver. John (Kates cousin) and his wife Steph took us there, and Tom (also Kates cousin) and his wife Laurie (that could be spelled differently - appologies) came along for the weekend too. Friday night was mostly just spent chilling and drinking - Tom’s specialty is a clear rum and coke! Saturday was spent warming up on regular bikes, cruising around the cross country trails around the Whistler lakes. About 6 hours later, we all decided we had had enough and it was time to relax in the hot tub belonging to the little apartment we were staying in. Cue drinking…

On sunday morning I went back to the bike shop to rent a bike for the lift-accessed bike park. I had intended to just rent a nice hard-tail, but they wouldn’t let me. Only full suspension rental bikes are allowed into the bike park (although you can take your own hard tail if you want). So I ended up with a Norco A-line. It is built by a Canadian company, apparently specifically for the Whistler trails. Neil you can stop drooling now… I’m actually pretty glad that I had all of that supension now though - even the blue trails are pretty hard work. They are graded like ski runs: green for easy, then blue, then black diamond and finally double black diamond. No black runs for me though; blue was enough! By the end of sunday I was getting more confident on the bike, so it would have been nice to have another day there to try some of the tougher sections again…next time, powers, next time!

Ciao from Italy!0
neil posted in Uncategorized, Photos, Travel, Neil on August 14th, 2006

Was’nt too sure about getting here, but we did. Ryanair neglected to cancel our flight, so kept us waiting in long queues for no apparent reason. The security section was the opposite, we breezed through without problems carrying our meagre carry-on in little plastic bags. After being searched and scanned for anything electronic or metallic (keys and belts ARE allowed) we were amused by the repeated requests to switch off mobile phones.

Our reservation in Pisa broke down at 12:30pm and we were delivered to a nice central hotel and the extra charge covered by our original destination.

Caught the train to Siena after making pictures of the tower )we’ll be back)  and booked into our lovely self catering country house. Very Italian (with useful and passable french) and very very cool. Off to play in Siena and try to get the trial runs of the Palio.

Ciao!!

Edinburgh Festivals’ Cavalcade 20060
neil posted in Uncategorized, Photos, Neil on August 6th, 2006

Every year the Cavalcade showcases a selection of the many Edinburgh festivals. The three thousand performers attract hundreds of thousands of onlookers. This year the crowd even perched on famous Scotts to get a view.

My photos are here.

See an impromtu breakdance battle here (series of photos). See a one sided battle between “Shuggie” the friendly Glaswegian monster and a prone Edinburgh Dungeon performer here.